Pride and Polish

Some of the hottest rigs on the continent will be on display later this month at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, with custom bobtails and combos squaring off for top billing in the Overdrive’s Pride & Polish contest, the country’s premier show truck event.

The crew out of Triple R Diesel’s Texas Chrome Shop showed its latest highly custom build for the first time at GATS, culminating more than a year-long venture that Texas Chrome’s Roland Mendez says “sets a new bar” for the company’s show rigs.

Owner-operator Kary Bryce of Sibley, La., founded his fleet in 1988 with a single Peterbilt 359. He’s always had 359s running in his operation, now at 116 trucks, he says. What’s now Bryce’s most-famed 359 he bought in 1996.

Boullion’s showed the Pete for four straight years at GATS, never thinking he’d pick up the coveted Best of Show nod. “It was a shock,” he says. “I still pinch myself. It’s something I’d never thought I’d even get.”

Freddy Velasco’s 2003 Peterbilt 379 was given an overhaul before the 2015 Great American Trucking Show, perhaps highlighted by Velasco’s unique paint scheme of purple and “crème brule.” The rig’s “California Dreamin'” moniker was suggested to Velasco by, what else, the model year. It won’t be picking up produce out in the Golden State anytime soon, he says.

Candice Cooley wanted to build a truck with a vintage feel without having to restore an older model. She decided to take a 2017 Peterbilt 389 and custom build it from top to bottom to give it a classic finish while still being a newer model.

Following a few years off from the showing his small fleet’s trucks, Minnesota-based aggregates hauler Jonathan Eilen said he wanted to “come back and make a statement” on the Pride & Polish circuit this year. Just six weeks after qualifying, Eilen left GATS with his statement made and a National Championship trophy in hand.